Archer set to lose peerage

Lord Archer will be stripped of his peerage under proposals announced by the Government today.

A tightening of the rules in the House of Lords would see those peers convicted of serious offences banished from the chamber, and their peerages permanently revoked.

Announcing the move, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, made clear that it would apply retrospectively - so the bestselling novelist could be its first victim.

At present a loophole allows convicted peers to return to the Lords once they have served their prison sentences, even though MPs in the same position would lose their seats.

Archer, a former Tory vice-chairman and Mayoral candidate, was released in the summer after serving two years of a fouryear prison sentence for perjury. He has said he intends to return to the second chamber to campaign for penal reform.

The change in the rules is part of a wider Government package of Lords reforms announced today, which will also see the final 92 hereditary peers disappearing from Westminster.

It will require parliamentary approval and a Bill could be announced in the Queen's Speech in November.

Announcing the proposal on convicted peers, Lord Falconer said it was essential to bring the rules for peers into line with the rules for MPs. He said: "We do not believe that this difference of treatment can any longer be justified.

"In future such peers will forfeit their membership of the House exactly as they would if they were MPs. In addition they will be deprived of their peerage.

"The provision will have retrospective effect. Parliament is a privilege, not a possession."

Former peers removed from the Lords in this way would be free to apply for renomination, Lord Falconer said, in the unlikely event that their party wanted them back.

Lord Archer's threatened return to Westminster has been the talk of the Lords tea room for months.

The 63-year-old peer was suspended from the Tory party for five years following his conviction in 2001. However, if he chooses to return to the Lords before the Government's proposals become law, he will be free to sit wherever he likes in the chamber, including on the Tory benches.